DShomshak

...Do humans know? Freud said we often don't -- not the real reasons -- and I believe him. (Even if I have my doubts whether Freud diagnosed the real reasons.) Dean Shomshak

what Steve said. Get Asian Bestiary for a start. Then use their bibliography to find all the stories you can about Japanese supernatural creatures, because it's always best to go back to the source. As for, "How would you place them in a Hero game?" that requires an essay, not a post. And I wrote that essay: "Faeries in the Campaign," p. 195 of The Ultimate Mystic. Buy My Book! 😈 Dean Shomshak

The eyes, unfortunately. I'll spare you the details. Reading these forums consumes much of my allotment for the day, so feel flattered that I consider y'all worth the attention. Dean Shomshak

The "excimer lasers" used in chip manufacture produce UV light. Visible light wavelengths aren't small enough to etch those teeny-weeny circuits. Dean Shomshak

I'm so out of touch, I haven't even heard of any of the authors. And since reading has become physically painful, I doubt I'll be looking for any of them. 😢 Dean Shomshak

Writing abstracts to scientific papers in the form of haiku has become a thing. March, 2022 Scientific American offers a selection from the 52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference of March 15-19, 2021. Here's my favorite: "Detailed Chloride Mapping in Terra Sirenum, Mars" Oceans lons since past Dry, cracked ground, no trace remains But the taste of salt. -- E. M. Harrington, B. B. Bultel, A. M. Krzesinska and S. Werner Dean Shomshak

The March, 2022 issue of Scientific American is a special issue devoted to "How Covid Chamged the World." Article titles (and, where applicable, subtitles) are as follows: * A Microbe Proved That Individualism Is a Myth. Humans evolved to be interdependent, not self-sufficient. * A High-Speed Scientific Hive Mind Emerged. Researchers found new forms of rapid communication and collaboration. * Science Journalism Shifted with New Realities. It is no longer possible to separate science and politics. * COVID Set Off a Boom in Diagnostics. The pandemic accelerated the development of cutting-edge PCR tests -- and made the need for them urgent. * American Public Health Revealed Its Fragility. * Global Health Institutions Reached Their Limits. The need to reinvent the World Health Organization has become abundantly clear. * We Didn't Get Serious About the Climate Crisis. Emergency managers are stuck reacting to a constant march of disasters. * Lockdowns Showed the Promise of Cities with Fewer Cars. * Inequality Got Much Worse. The poor, no matter where they live, will suffer the greatest lasting toll. * Messenger RNA Therapies Finally Arrived. Instructing our cells to make specific proteins could control influenza, autoimmune diseases, even cancer. * Billionaire Space Tourists Became Insufferable. * Long Haulers Called Attention to Chronic Illnesses. But society is not prepared for the growing crisi of long COVID. * Data Captures COVID's Uneven Toll. Visualizing ongoing stories of loss, adaptation and inequality. * Work Changed Forever. People realized their jobs don't have to be that way. * Nasal Spray Preventives Went Into Development. * Fault Lines in American Society Got Deeper. The pandemic energized the Black Lives Matter movement -- and provoked a dangerous backlash. * Vaccine Inequality Shut Vulnerable People Out of Plans to Save the Planet. Those with the most at stake were heard the least. * Oxygen Shortages Delayed Rocket Launches. * Conspiracy Theories Made It Harder for Scientists to Seek the Truth. Virus origin stories have always been prone to disinformation, and the "lab leak hypothesis" threatens research -- and lives. * Pandemic-Era Research Paid Off -- and Will for Years. * COVID Is Here to Stay. How do we live with it? Dean Shomshak

Just heard on Marketplace: There's much talk of what stopping buying Russian oil and gas can do to the world economy. The disruption to the world's food supply may be greater and more damaging: Russia and Ukraine produce a fairly significant fraction of the world's wheat, and it's not so easy to replace or re-source crops that don't get planted. This could be very bad for some countries that are heavily dependent on imported food. (A news story I read elsewhere mentioned several countries in the Middle East.) Less obvious, longer-term disruption: A hit to the world's neon supply. Between them, Russia and Ukraine produce a pretty big fraction of the world's neon. And no, this doesn't mean a looming shortage of beer logo signs. Neon signs account for only 1-2% of neon used. The application that may matter most? The powerful lasers used to etch circuit diagrams on silicon chips. As if the chip shortage weren't significant already. Fortunately, the chip industry started stockpiling neon after the last disruption, when Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014. They have several months of neon on hand. China also started ramping up neon production then, and presumably may do so again. But it's just one more thing. Dean Shomshak

Urban Fantasy: As in, "Modern world with myth and magic secretly alongside"? In that case, an easy place to start is actual folklore. Your elves aren't elves: They are the Sidhe, or the Tylwyth Teg, or huldra-folk, or youkai, or celestial maidens, or, um, whatever Filipino elves are called. Pick a culture, or cultures, read up on the folklore, and decide what parts are true, what's false, and what's a mortal misinterpretation. Dean Shomshak

Heh, there were a few comic books in which we got to see the defenses of Dr. Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum. Including one early issue in which the plot was that Doc had to rescue the dumb-ass who tried to burgle his house. (Safety tip: If you break into a weird spooky house and see a big purple jewel under a bell jar, do not pick up the jewel. <insert "The More You Know" logo>) Dean Shomshak

A very immersive experience... especially if the lower floor springs a leak. 😀 But it includes plans! Extra-useful. Dean Shomshak

Among gamers, at least, because most people don't have the time, the skills, or the interest to create entire worlds from scratch. Or, likely, to assimilate worlds that were. And there's nothing wrong with that. "Thank you, Captain Obvious." Beyond that, I could pontificate about the difference between folk art and high art, but I fear that would only pour gasoline on a fire I would rather see go out. Dean Shomshak

Fortunately for me, I haven's seen most of the movies mentioned -- and I won't. Thanks for the warnings, folks. I've seen some microbudget schlock like Wild World of Batwoman and Rat Pfink a Boo Boo. Terrible, but they didn't aim higher, so at least you can laugh at them. And I find Plan 9 from Outer Space rather touching, in its own crackbrained way. Ed Wood was trying. You can almost imagine the movie he might have made if only he'd had more money and more talent. Debbie Does Damnation is worth seeing in a bizarre, backwards way just to see what sort of movie an amateur can make with a budget of, IIRC, under $1,000. (But NSFW.) Waterworld was bloated, but hey, it had a decent score and a few nice visuals. The only movie for which I ever walked out of the theater was a compilation of animation by some guy from Czechoslovakia. Avant-gard surrealism and dull, dull, dull. But I'd say the worst movie for which I paid money was All the Marbles, starring Peter Falk as a promoter for two tag-team lady wrestlers. My friends and I only saw it because the movie we wanted to see was sold out and we didn't want to just drive home. Dull, dull, dull. Okay, on "making an entrance" scene that had me laughing with its over-the-topness, but I'm not sure it was intended to be funny. And unlike big-budget Star Wars spectacles that managed to put fannies in seats despite their flaws, I'm pretty sure All the Marbles flopped. I don't remember anything actively terrible about it. It was just a waste of celluloid and time. Dean Shomshak

Yesterday my local paper ran this AP article on the religious landscape of Ukraine and Russia. There's a sectarian aspect to the conflict... though not in Ukraine itself. Even Russian Orthodox Ukrainians who look to the Patriarch of Moscow oppose the Russian invasion. At any rate, another aspect if anyone's interested. https://news.yahoo.com/explainer-russia-ukraine-war-linked-140533566.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall&guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9zZWFyY2guYW9sLmNvbS9jbGljay9feWx0PUF3cmdEdWxtX3g1aVQ0TUFMVFZwQ1dWSDtfeWx1PVkyOXNid05uY1RFRWNHOXpBeklFZG5ScFpBTUVjMlZqQTNOai9SVj0yL1JFPTE2NDYyMjc0MzAvUk89MTAvUlU9aHR0cHMlM2ElMmYlMmZuZXdzLnlhaG9vLmNvbSUyZmV4cGxhaW5lci1ydXNzaWEtdWtyYWluZS13YXItbGlua2VkLTE0MDUzMzU2Ni5odG1sJTNmZnIlM2RzeWNzcnBfY2F0Y2hhbGwvUks9MC9SUz1JT3RiN3VFQU9ocDdwMGJ4RDFXUWJoVGhIanMt&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAL0kfWtSNlvgelWQqHyvvcl_F21CRYPQGX7xLY9hLB8gxJS8zmFNRlQqJ2BGZw2H8be82mDaYwICdVD-FZPPsUWWFrpYHxtiP2YrpW2__nPd9vjYH3JBfCB5V8-8JQ9p-rM6Qe_PBoQqIPDnIATTytvldayHM9RHCAAeOmXtGsQw Dean Shomshak

I forget whether it was here or a newspaper article that mentioned Google Maps advising Ukrainians on how to avoid Russian tanks. They're causing traffic jams, you know. Dean Shomshak

Connecting Russia's invasion and Trumpist lunacy... Mitt Romney laments, "Morons. I have morons on my team." (Apparently a movie quote.) Read the brief version of the article in my morning paper. Here's the full article from the source: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/feb/27/sen-mitt-romney-complains-morons-gop-after-lawmake/ In brief, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar attended the AFPAC conference organized by white nationalist Nick Fuentes, who rose to prominence from the deadly "Unite the Right" rally/riot in Charlottesviklle. There they joined him in a pro-Putin chant. Romney and Liz C?heney have both called them out. I think I shall avoid further comment. Dean Shomshak

Nor I, but these sanctions have been much greater, and come *much* more swiftly, than I imagined possible. I imagined weeks of dithering while governments argued with each other and tried to make up their own minds. Putin probably did as well. While I am no military expert (nor mind reader), I suspect his plan was to wage a short, victorious war and present the rest of the world with a fait accompli. Governments would huff and puff, but nobody would be ready to go to war with Russia for the sake of a country already conquered. The Eurowimps would wag fingers, but would admit they needed Russian gas and oil more than they needed principles. Americans would be hamstrung by internal hyper-partisanship, and wouldn't act without strong allied support. I have not words to say how happy I am this has not happened. Putin is clever, but this time he totally misread the room. It appears he did not, in fact, have a strategy tree by which he could change his plans to win something no matter what the West did in response. He can still "win" in Ukraine, but it will be a bloody, brutal slog instead of a chess-master's brilliant gambit. Instead of breaking up, NATO looks like it's getting new members and new resolve. Russia's trade and financial ties are unraveling. While Europe still needs Russian oil and gas, this will accelerate the search for alternate energy sources, steadily impoverishing Russia and reducing its economic leverage. And, intangibly, just an attitude of disgust toward Russia. Machiavelli warned that while it can be good for a prince to be feared, no prince can survive contempt. Not one path to defeat, but all paths to defeat, in one field or another. I hope the Russian people -- and the Russian generals -- are coming to understand this. Dean Shomshak

Thanks for keeping up on this, Archer. It's important to remember how Western leaders face choices that are more complex than we ever hear from normal media. (Even responsible media that are really trying to inform.) I am really, *really* glad that I can sit here huffing in outrage and don't have to play this three-dimensional chess game in person. On Saturday, ATC once again spoke to Eastern Europe expert Prof. Timothy Snyder. He rather mocked Putin's recent argument for why Russia, Belarus and Ukraine are, always were, and always must be one nation. Apparently it all comes down to some Viking chieftan baptizing himself Christian a thousand years ago. Sorry, Prof. Snyder says, quite a bit of history has passed since then. But, as Snyder also pointed out in his On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, totalitarian despots (and would-be despots -- the book was specifically written in response to Trumpism) never engage with real history, in all its messy complexity and ambiguity. They construct ultra-simplified narratives of heroic examples and ancient grievances. Snyder also argued that Ukraine, a place most of us never paid the least attention to, has actually been in the heart of the major historical trends and events for at least a hundred years. Early nationalist movement, challenging the Russian Empire; brutal repression by Stalin; a major goal of Hitler, to become Germany's new breadbasket; post Soviet, finding a new path caught between Russia and the West; even the problem of growing income inequality; more. Interesting stuff. Dean Shomshak

A few days ago on BBC or ATC -- I forget which, there s been a lot to take in -- a former PM of Finland said the country could join NATO in a day if it and NATO were willing; Finland meets all the requirements. And he's advocated this for a long time. Anders Sandberg? I "met" him years ago when he contributed Mage: the Ascension fanwork on a White Wolf gaming forum, and he was sorking on his degree in computational neuroscience. He has that degree now and has appeared on programs about artificial intelligence, transhumanism, and similar topics because IRL he works on that sort of stuff IRL. Basically, he's developing the technology to cause the Singularity that replaces humanity. Very nice guy, or at least he was in his alt/games.white-wolf days, but a bit fearsome. Dean Shomshak

Quite possibly. y morning paper had an Associated Press article about the Baltic states, whose leaders fully expect their countries to be next on Putin's list -- they actually did make it into the EU and NATO, and have large Russian minorities -- and the article noted that Finland also spent time subjugated by Russia. Poland, too. Another article mentioned the likelihood that the assault from the Crimea and Black Sea navy will try seizing a land bridge between Crimea and the "Trans-Dniester Republic," andother Putin-created Russian exclave along the edge of Moldova -- another fomer Soviet possession. Putin has said for years that he wanted to restore the old Russian/Soviet empire. It would be rash to assume that having started on direct conquest, he would stop halfway... unless he is stopped. Dean Shomshak

So, ABC just preempted Wheel of Fortune (my mother watches it) to announce that Russia's invasion of Ukraine has begun. Explosions and air raid siren in Kyiv. Putin claiming it's all to "liberate" the Ukrainean people; claiming "denazification." Also warning the rest of the world that if any outside power interferes, that country will suffer consequences like the world has never seen before. (Or something like that; I don't guarantee I got the announcer's words right.) The war is on. Dean Shomshak

Nowadays, it is probably not important to the average Russian that the Tsars claimed to inherit a special divine right as successors of the Byzantine Empire through the marriage of a Byzantine princess to... a prince of Kyiv. Or that the Russian analog of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, heroes such as Ilya Murometz, Aliosha Popovich, Mikula, etc, were the knights of Prince Vladimir of... Kyiv. (Thank you, college class on Russian folklore.) Dean Shomshak

Today's All Things Considered had an interesting interview with historian Timothy Snyder (specialist in both Eastern Europe and fascism) on on the Russian government's near-constant sarcasm -- a highly undiplomatic approach to diplomacy. He describes it as a sort of post-modern cynical pose, for multiple purposes: to show that Russia is so powerful it doesn't care what anyone else thinks; just to irritate the other side, since it can be hard to think straight when you're angry; and to confuse, since it's not always clear what the speaker really believes. Rhetorically, it bespeaks a contempt for facts. As LL has said elsewhere, you use sarcasm when facts and logic are against you. It projects a worldview where "Nothing is true and everything is possible," and nothing matters except what side you're on and who has the power. According to stories on BBC, ATC, On the Media and others, Russian state-controlled television delivers a constant barrage of such disinformation chaos, with hefty doses of aggrieved outrage how everyone is against Great Mother Russia. (One may note similar rhetorical strategies on Fox "News," suggesting what sort of government and culture Fox's backers want.) Dean Shomshak

He already did that with Georgia and Moldova, so, sure. Except that Ukraine is a special thorn in Putin's side because he believes, apparently sincerely, that there is not, never was, and never should be a separate country called Ukraine, the Ukraineans are just deluded Russians. Putin's strategy tree almost certainly involves using any attack on the separatists and their Russian allies as pretext to attack and take Ukraine in toto. One of the great problems in dealing with Putin is that he *does* have strategy trees, and doesn't make a move until he is sure all paths lead to victory. (I suspect that even if Putin pulled his troops back today, he'll have learned a great deal about Western intelligence sources, methods and assets in Russia.) And Western governments are always timidly reactive. Western strategies always seem to be minimax -- minimize your maximum possible losses -- because they don't want to inflict pain on their own people, whether in the form of body bags or just higher gas prices. But minimax is not a strategy to win. It is just a strategy to avoid losing big. Against a patient opponent who can predict your responses, it may be just be a strategy for losing by inches. Putin is such an opponent, and the democratic West is losing. Rationally, I am not in a position to make intelligent suggestions of strategy in dealing with Putin. But I hope Western leaders are ready to be audacious, and irreversible. No more hedging. No more "off ramps." The Cold War has been back on for years, from Russia's side. It's past time Western leaders accepted it and began behaving appropriately. Dean Shomshak

What you describe, assault, is pretty close to the magic in Jonathan Stroud's "Bartimaeus" series of YA Fantasy novels. (The Amulet of Samarkand, The Golem's Eye, Ptolemy's Gate, The Ring of Solomon.) Magicians can summon and bind spirits -- period. Magic items are magic because they have spirits bound into them. Any other powers a magician seems to have are similarly gained from spirits. Spirit summoning requires a great deal of specialized knowledge, plus special tools -- high ritual magic, all very Key of Solomon. If you make any mistake, the spirit is free to attack you... because it is an intelligent person whom you just kidnapped from its home plane and tried to bind into staying in a world where every second of existence is painful. All magic involves keeping slaves, which means that though you don't have to be an utter rat bastard to be a magician, it helps. How powerful a magician is depends on the power of the spirits he can summon and bind, which in turn depends on his knowledge, intelligence, experience, and an undefinable talent -- no matter how hard a magician studies, he will almost certainly never equal legendary mages such as William Ewart Gladstone. (Yes, it's alternate history Fantasy as well.) You could represent this as a Power (Summon), with various Skill Rolls. Magic items are Independent Powers. But yeah, in most cases the spirit is an NPC compelled to work the magician's will. An involuntary Follower might be the best way to represent this. Or a pool of points to represent a magician's changing roster of spirit Followers. And is it really necessary to write out the Summoning Power? It might indeed be more parsimonious to just treat it as a Skill, with the Side Effect -- angry, uncontrolled spirit -- as the consequence for failure, just as the consequence for failing a Demolitions roll badly might be that you blow yourself up. All the paraphernalia of Summoning -- the magic circle, pots of incense, herbs, other stuff -- and Extra Time, Incantations, etc., are just conditions of using the Skill -- just as someone using Mechanics to fix a car needs time and tools. So yes, this seems like a viable option for a certain kind of game. Finally, I'll note that in the Bartimaeus series, half the chapters are first person narrations by the jinni Bartimaeus himself. He is the chief protagonist. A PC. That might also be the case in a such a Fantasy game: Each player controls a magician, and one of the spirits summoned by one of the other players. Dean Shomshak